Coroner’s officials have identified a body found buried in a Lennox backyard as that of 53-year-old James Daniel Stein, the owner of the residential property on 112th Street.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Don Slawson on Thursday said a search for a possible second body on the property – that of Stein’s wife, Gabriella Stein, 42, who went missing later – did not turn up anything.

Marcos Lomeli, 26, of Lennox was being held on suspicion of false imprisonment, robbery, carjacking and assault with a deadly weapon, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said.

Meanwhile, the cause of a Wednesday night fire in the home has been turned over to arson investigators.

Lomeli and fellow suspect Jenny Salazar, 22, rented the house part time.

The Steins had been reported missing from the house in December.

The investigation began Saturday when a man called the sheriff’s South Los Angeles station to report he had been the victim of a carjacking, assault and false imprisonment. The man told detectives he had gone to visit acquaintances at the home in the 4800 block of 112nd Street in Lennox and, while he was there, Lomeli and Salazar asked if they could borrow his truck.

“When the victim asked why they wanted to borrow the truck, they said to move a body,” said Capt. Michael Parker.

When he refused, he was tied up and his truck was stolen, Slawson said. He managed to escape and called deputies.

Donna Littlejohn has covered the Harbor Area as a reporter since 1981. Along with development, politics, coyotes, battleships and crime, she writes features that have spotlighted an array of topics, from an alligator on the loose in a city park to the modern-day cowboys who own the trails on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. She loves border collies and Aussie dogs, cats, early California Craftsman architecture and most surviving old stuff. She imagines the 1970s redevelopment sweep that leveled so much of San Pedro's historic waterfront district as very sad.